Lancaster Central High School’s Academy of Finance will host its second annual awards ceremony on Jan. 26 at the Lancaster Opera House.

The ceremony will highlight many local business leaders and community representatives who have helped influence and mold students who have shown an interest in becoming future employees in a business.

Students apply to become members of the Academy of Finance during their freshman year and, if selected, spend the next three years of their high school careers participating in a structured curriculum.

Courses based on financial services, banking, accounting, financial planning and international finance, among others, help to prepare students for their area of interest and also give them an opportunity to earn college credit.

Toward the end of their junior year, students participate in a paid internship, which lasts throughout the summer months. Local banks, insurance agencies, not-for-profit organizations and finance departments in a variety of businesses are some of the places that help connect students to job-related experience in the real world.

In 2011, the group was recognized by the National Academy Foundation as a “distinguished academy,” the highest level of achievement awarded to only seven programs throughout the country.